Volunteers wrap up Edith Dodge with a bow in Marblehead

Friday

Edith Dodge Fund head Joan Cutler calls the ladies seated around a horseshoe-shaped row of tables “the wrap and chats because they go at 190 miles per hour.”

She was referring to the Cottage Gardners of Marblehead and Swampscott, who stepped up once again to wrap gifts for the Edith Dodge Fund.

The foundation delivers a gift to every resident in town aged 80 or older as well as former residents living in area nursing homes. It was just past 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and the gardners had been wrapping boxes of cookie for less than an hour, but one table was already stacked high with boxes ready to be delivered.

“They are amazing,” said Cutler..

This year, the gardeners wrapped 1,700 boxes of cookies and be-ribboned 20 boxes of clementines, according to Cutler. There were also 194 fleece blankets to “fluff and stuff” for the nursing home residents, said volunteer Linda Maffeo.

Pam Gorman Oppelt moved wrapped cookies from one table to another, packing them carefully into boxes, which would be picked up later by still more volunteers for delivery. She said she’d been volunteering with the organization for five or six years.

“I’m not one of the originals, I’m sure,” she joked.

She said she likes to come because it’s fun and “because it’s nice to be remembered at Christmastime and Marblehead is a pretty unique town.”

Lea Doliber Phipps has been moving cookies around for four years. She actually knew Edith Dodge, for whom the endeavor is named because she was a friend of Phipps’ father.

“And I thought it would be a good thing to do,” she said.

It might also have something to do with the fact that Cutler, Oppelt and Phipps are old friends.

“We all went to school together and grew up together,” Cutler said.

Judy Wareham watched the Cottage Gardners at work then turned back to her task of opening cases of cookies and said “I want to hire those girls to wrap my Christmas gifts.”

It is Wareham’s first year volunteering. She said she had the time because she retired this year.

“But I’m thinking of going back to work because this is hard work,” she said with a laugh.

Maffeo said she also started volunteering after she retired.

“I just think it’s a wonderful idea,” Maffeo said referring to the concept. “And I just like volunteering. It’s very exciting.”

Phipps said she thinks it’s a nice way to give back to seniors “who did for us. And we’ll be seniors soon, too.”

Not only is the organization run by volunteers but it also operates solely on donations. Cutler said it costs roughly $15,000 to pull off the event each year and they will happily accept donations of any and all sizes.

“Donations can be made in memory of your cat, your dog, your grandmother, a teacher, whoever,” Cutler said. “All are welcome.”

Donations to the fund can be sent to the Edith Dodge Memorial Fund Inc. c/o National Grand Bank, 91 Pleasant St., or made in person at the bank. Questions, comments and thank you notes, for those so inclined, can be sent to the Edith Dodge Memorial Fund, Inc. PO Box 1402, Marblehead.

And grateful gift recipients can send thank-you notes directly to the Dodge Fund at P.O. Box 1402, Marblehead, 01945. Cutler said she loves to read the cards and letters they receive. Some she admits are heartbreaking but most simply make her smile and all of them serve to motivate her and her team, she said.